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Wednesday, May 30, 2012

MSA Misleads – Professor Eisenstein Litigates

Associated Professor Maurice Eisenstein of the Political Science department at Purdue University noticed that a group of radical Muslims from Nigeria calling themselves Boko Haram (Warning: Link that tells what Radical Islamic Boko Haram is has a video showing just how evil these Muslims are by ritually beheading a Christian Nigerian) slaughtered some fellow Nigerians merely because they were Christians. Eisenstein objected to murder in the name of Islam as taught to do to non-Muslims by Islam’s founder Mohammed. Eisenstein objected in the public forum of Facebook.

A Muslim gal at Purdue commented on Eisenstein’s Facebook page that she was the equivalent of disgusted for insulting Mo the prophet. Evidently because the Muslim gal has tons of Muslim friends on Facebook, Eisenstein’s excellent though not politically correct call went viral among Muslim students at Purdue. And surprise-surprise, the Muslim Student Association (MSA) organized a fire Eisenstein movement on the Purdue campus. Here is a snapshot of the Facebook entry made by Eisenstein courtesy of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE).

In a FrontPageMag.com interview between Eisenstein and Jamie Glazov, Eisenstein said this:

“The entire attack on my free speech began over a post I made to Facebook in November 2011. I posted a picture with a storyline about an Islamist Muslim group (Boko Haram) killing Christians in Nigeria. I asked: Where were the moderate Muslims? They must be listening to that idiot Mohammad.

From this, one of my PUC colleagues, a Muslim, told me (on Facebook) that she believed my statement about Mohammad was beyond despicable. Once she responded to me, then several of her students were able come to my Facebook page to tell me that they also believed that I was out-of-bounds for denigrating Mohammad. Their essential issue was that I was offending Mohammed and Islam. In the wake of that incident, the Muslim Student Association became involved and they did a press release saying that no prophet (Jesus, Moses, Mohammad — their argument not mine) should be insulted because offending a religion was not an acceptable use of freedom of speech.

Basically, this whole ordeal started because I insulted Mohammad. I did insult Mohammad. I may not have been nice about it, I may have been provocative about it, but quite frankly, I think killing Christians because they are Christian and not Muslim is much more insulting than calling Mohammad an idiot.

From this incident, there emerged an active campaign from the Muslim faculty and students, the Muslim Student Association (acting, as it claimed, on behalf of all Muslims), and their leftist supporters, active collusion to get the University to fire me for offending them. Because the University could not fire me for Facebook comments, the faculty, students, and the MSA decided that it would then say that I was harassing and discriminating against students in my classroom. Toward that end, audio tapes of one of my courses from Spring 2011 were then posted on YouTube. It was an Introduction to Judaism course, which I taught from a pro-Jewish and pro-Israel perspective. Two of the books I used in the course were: Why the Jews? by Praeger and Telushkin as well as The Israel Test by George Gilder. Anyway, I am very provocative and blunt — I like challenging students, particularly since most of what is taught on campus (irrespective of the discipline) comes from a center left perspective.

Now, there are over 40 to 45 hours of lectures from that class. Out of those 40 to 45 hours, about 16 minutes were posted on YouTube and, of course, these 16 minutes were selectively edited so that I was portrayed in the worst possible light and without context. Then, based on these tapes, in conjunction with my Facebook comments, 9 separate harassment and discrimination complaints were filed against me.” (Read Entire Interview)

Eventually the Muslim Student Association is a direct offshoot of the Salafist/Radical Muslim group known as the Muslim Brotherhood. That means the MSA as does the Muslim Brotherhood believes that Christians that refuse to submit to Islamic Supremacism must die. Since MSA is an American group, they will not come outright and say the Mohammed principle of the People of the Book (Jews and Christians) must choose between converting to Islam, submitting to the authority of the rules of Sharia-Dhimmitude or die. That would be a public relations disaster for them in America. So the MSA as do many Muslim-American groups that have roots in the Muslim Brotherhood or Saudi Wahhabism obfuscate their beliefs in America to produce the view that Islam is just another religion deserving Religious Freedom.

ACT for America is exposing the nefarious nature of the MSA in sharing about Eisenstein’s effort to sue Purdue for infringing on his Free Speech rights because Purdue considered the possibility of punishment for Eisenstein writing the obvious truth on his Facebook page.

The ACT for America email alert begins with harassment Eisenstein received then finishes the email with a Fox News report.

According to the Muslim Students Association (MSA), apparently when it hears speech it deems “anti-Muslim.”

According to the Fox News story below (highlights added), a Purdue University professor who made comments on his Facebook page about Muslims was investigated after complaints by the MSA and other faculty.

The professor then filed a lawsuit alleging the investigation violated his free speech rights.

One of the faculty members expressed concern for the Saudi students on campus. She went so far as to argue that the “anti-Muslim” comments were comparable to yelling fire in a crowded theater. The implication is that the comments put Muslim students in danger and should be prohibited.

Someone needs to remind this professor who complained that we’re not living in Saudi Arabia, where speech deemed offensive to Muslims is prohibited and can put a non-Muslim in serious jeopardy. We still have free speech protections here, whether that speech is offensive to Muslims, Jews or Christians.

__________________________

Professor sues Purdue after probe of his anti-Muslim Facebook comments

Purdue University Professor Maurice Eisenstein says the school's investigation - which cleared him - still violated his free speech rights.

A Purdue University professor has filed a freedom of speech suit against his school and five co-workers after getting in hot water for inflammatory statements about Muslims on his Facebook page.

Tenured political science professor Maurice Eisenstein was cleared by a university investigation into his Facebook comments, which included a reference to "the idiot Mohammad [sic}, may his name be cursed." But Eisenstein claims the investigation nonetheless damaged his reputation and disputes a finding that he retaliated against other faculty members.

“I was trying to be challenging as a professor, and do what I was trained to do,” Eistenstein, who joined the school's faculty in 1993, told FoxNews.com.

The flap unfolded late last year, when Eisenstein posted a photo of the aftermath of a massacre of Nigerian Christians, purportedly carried out by African Muslims, on his Facebook page.

"Where are the ‘moderate' Muslims' reaction to this? Oh, I forgot they are still looking at the earth as flat ...,” Eisenstein wrote above the post.

Other members of the faculty, as well as members of the Muslim Student Association, learned of the comments and went to school officials. Eisenstein maintained that the post was on his personal page and in no way reflected on the school. History professor Miriam Joyce, who later filed a harassment complaint against Eisenstein, told FoxNews.com the comments could alienate students.

“We have Saudi students," Joyce said. "We have other Muslim students. This is wrong. It creates an unpleasant and unwelcoming atmosphere. “I’m concerned that Muslim students and their parents will get the wrong idea about my school.”

The Muslim Student Association could not be reached for comment.

The school's investigation, led by Chancelor Thomas Keon, cleared Eisenstein in January of violating the college’s free-speech and anti-harassment rules. However, he received a written reprimand for allegedly retaliating against Joyce, as well as a second professor, Saul Lerner.

Eisenstein denied retaliating or harassing his colleagues, but acknowledged a bitter e-mail exchange with Lerner and denies making a callous reference to Joyce’s son, a former hedge fund manager who committed suicide.

Eisenstein said his freedom-of-speech suit is the result of the university’s investigation into his comments about Muslims - even though the probe ostensibly cleared him.

“When you investigate free speech, you chill free speech,” Eisenstein said. “How am I supposed to do my job without free speech. I've changed. Every time I go into a classroom, I look around and wonder who will complain about what I say.”

Eisenstein enlisted the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) in bringing his suit against the Big Ten school.

"This is not the first time and it won't be the last time we will see a university punish a student or professor for constitutionally protected speech on Facebook," said FIRE President Greg Lukianoff. "Professors at public universities should not have to go to court to defend their free speech rights." Joyce said freedom of speech shouldn't permit a professor at a public school to gratuitously denigrate the beliefs of others, including students at the school.

“I'm all for free speech. I want it for me and I want it for everyone else, but there’s got to be some judgment used," Joyce said. "You don’t cry fire if there isn’t a fire and then say it was protected by free speech.

“I’m a [history] teacher," she added. "I’d rather be dealing with Bahrain than Eisenstein, anyway.”

Professor sues Purdue after probe of his anti-Muslim Facebook comments

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